About Me
Some of my Achievements - I founded and Edited FAMOUS MONSTERS MAGAZINE that brought Halloween to kids around the World every month for almost 200 issues and almost 30 years. ---
I created VAMPIRELLA. --- I coined the term SCI-FI. --- I wrote the shortest SCI-FI story in the World, consisting of a single letter. --- How did I start?Well, in 1922, at the age of 5-1/2, I saw my first fantasy film,
ONE GLORIOUS DAY.In October, 1926, I read and collectedmy first "scientifiction" magazine,AMAZING STORIES.In l929, I won a contest in the San Francisco Chronicle,entered by over 200 teenaged contestants,with my short story about a trip to Mars.In that same year I founded The Boys Scientifiction Club(I would have included girlsbut at that time female fans were as rare as unicorns' horns).In l932, I presented the world's first known list of "imagi-movies"(one of my many coined words)on the first pageof the first science fiction fanzine,The Time Traveler.By l935 I was correspondingwith l27 sci-fi fans around the world--although it would be l954before I coinedthe ubiquitous abbreviation,"sci-fi ."Since l948 I have served as literary agentfor approximately 200 clients including:Pierre Barbet
Nelson Bond
Jerome Bixby
Bradbury & Asimov (early foreign reprints)
Harry Bates
Arthur J. Burks
Cleve Cartmill
Mark Clifton
Stanton A. Coblentz
Mary Elizabeth Counselman
Hugo Gernsback
Horace L. Gold
L. Ron Hubbard
Raymond F. Jones
George Langelaan
Ib Melchior
P. Schuyler Miller
Kris Neville
Andre Norton
Ross Rocklynne
Victor Rousseau
Curt Siodmak
Sherwood Springer
William F. Temple
Lyn Venable
A.E. van Vogt
Stanley Weinbaum
Jack Williamson
and S. Fowler Wrightand I represent the estates of artists
Frank R. Paul, Elliott Dold,
Albert Nuetzell, Charles Schneeman
and Hannes BokI have collaborated withCatherine Moore, A.E. van Vogt,Robert A.W. Lowndes, Francis Flagg and other sf authors.Among 50 stories, I've written the world's shortest one myself:one letter of the alphabet.I have seen my favorite film,METROPOLISclose to 100 times.I have appeared in over 50 motion picture cameos,
in films such asTHE TIME TRAVELERS, AMAZON WOMEN ON THE MOON,
THE HOWLING, BEVERLY HILLS COP III, THRILLER,
INNOCENT BLOOD, VAMPIRELLA,
and DRACULA VS. FRANKENSTEIN.My handprints and autograph
are enshrined in cementin front of the Vista Theater in Hollywood(est. in l926; former location of the Babylon set piecesfrom D.W. Griffith's INTOLERANCEand the upstairs office of Ed Wood, Jr.).My life companion,
Wendayne (the only one in the world) Ackerman,as the aftermath of a mugging in Italy,died some years ago, but not beforetranslating l50 sci-fi novels from French & German,moonlighting while teaching for 20 years at university.It would be nice to look forwardto going to a Great Sci-Fi Convention in the Sky when I expireand reuniting withWendayne & Boris & Hugo & Paul & Bela & Isaac & Bob (Bloch)and my beloved maternal grandparents,last of the big time angels(my grandfather, George Herbert Wymaninspired by the sci-fi bestseller of the day,Looking Backward,architected -- for $5. a week --the monumental Bradbury Building in Los Angeles,which has been seen inBLADERUNNER, WOLF, DEMON WITH THE GLASS HANDand many other films).I am vaguely contemplating opting for a cryogenic comeback
but in case I don't become a human people-cicle,I, like Isaac Asimov and other thinkers I admire,don't expect to wake up in some spirit realm of an afterlife.I've been a secular humanist since I was 15,long before the term was invented,and nothing since has changed my mind.I regard myself as a sci-fi sponge
that should be squeezedfor information and anecdotesas long as I'm here.Sowhile I'm still around,squeeze me.
